


Deeds and Words

by orphan_account



Series: Ridiculously Content Crab and Dog AU [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, I tried and that's all that counts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-14
Updated: 2013-03-14
Packaged: 2017-12-05 06:08:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/719754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat stares at her from a doorway and it's totally not creepy.<br/>It's not because she winds up staring at him too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deeds and Words

He finds he's been staring at her for over a minute. It's probably starting to get creepy. She's in one of the spare rooms curled up with a book on a giant mess of fluffy cushions no doubt transferred from the golden ship she and her brother had ridden in on. Karkat shifts from foot to foot. His staring is starting to creep himself out, and he's vaguely aware that it shouldn't be working that way, but he keeps staring. Karkat decides he likes looking at her because she's a strange calm in the midst of all the tense moments that have been lingering around the meteor, and it's such a welcome relief. Jade twiddles her hair every now and then and Karkat is struck by a warm tightening in his chest because such a simple movement shouldn't be _that_ endearing.

He had been insanely worried that things on the meteor, the entire dynamic of things, would be thrown into absolute dysfunction with the new presence of the two Prospit siblings. As it were, John and Jade only seemed to add energy to the lives of those on the meteor, although Karkat notes that John seemed a little more petulant than he remembered. Jade, ever since touching down on the meteor, has been smiles and logic and something so _different_ from what Karkat remembered he finds himself close to combustion when she's near. He excused himself after their initial meeting because she had floated right up to him with her cute as fuck woofbeast ears (scratch that cute is not a proper description for her ears he needs to erase that word from his think pan forever) and he just needed to go calm himself the right fuck down because _holy shit Jade Harley is on the meteor this is not a goddamn drill_. It really didn't help that every time he saw her his words pitched upwards awkwardly and he would end up wheezing halfway through a sentence.

He's used to being noisy, given that most of what he says comes out furiously loud despite his softer intentions, and he feels so fucking awkward and clumsy in the quiet of the spare room watching Jade and listening to the soft crinkle of the pages of her book. She looks so at home and comfortable that all Karkat wants to do is sit next to her and listen to her breathe or read and that's definitely not creepy in twelve different ways. He doesn't realize his stare is out of focus and until he dreamily lets his gaze wander to her bright green eyes and wait a fucking second—

"What's up Karkat?" Her eyes are wide, bright, and staring _right back at him_ while she gives him a small toothy grin and Karkat is vaguely aware of his blood-pumper doing its job a little too well. She closes the book shut, her thumb keeping place, and seems full intent on having an actual conversation after he's been staring at her for about a sweep or so and she's caught him in the act.

"Just wondering what kind of sludge shuffling babble you've decided to mangle with your deathstare today Harley," he retorts, voice unusually soft, but a little rough along the edges from his perpetual shouting. The quiet of the room is broken and some part of him wants to return to the serenity of the silence. At least she's talking and at least he doesn't feel like he's going to combust on the spot. He shuffles closer to her, tugging on the hem of his sweater, but it's really not because he's nervous. No. That would be stupid. This is stupid.

Jade huffs a little bit. "Well if you actually wanted to know, it's just a collection of short stories that John had lying around from the ship. I guess it was his grandmother's or his dad's book? The stories are all pretty good, even the ones that are a bit sad."

" _Wow_ , it sounds so riveting I forgot to pick up my jaw after it gracefully descended to the floor. Because I was so enthralled." Karkat doesn't actually care what she's reading and he's glad that he's not writhing on the floor in some vain attempt to catch his breath just from being in the same room as her.

Jade rolls her eyes at him. "No need to get snippy, nubby head. You might as well come sit down. You've been standing in the doorway for the past five minutes."

 

Oh shit.  
Well, his creepy stares had not gone unnoticed time to throw himself off the edge of something.

 

It's tempting to run off and fling himself from some high perch, but Jade pats the space in front of her, her face open and inviting.

With a defeated sigh he crosses the room to her."Just be glad that I'm even gracing you with my presence. You should be bowing down to me right now," he grumbles and she snickers lightly, dipping her head in a mock salute.

Karkat flops down by Jade's legs and wiggles about until he's sure he's absolutely comfortable. The pale woofbeast ears atop her head twitch and Jade chokes back a laugh after Karkat turns and sends her a glare. Sending him one last mirthful smile, she begins to read again, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Karkat lets his eyes close and softly hums in contentment. His fingers start to knead at the cushions involuntarily and he decides that sometimes quiet moments are nicer than trying to command a meteor full of idiots. What a shit leader he's turned out to be though. At that thought he nearly groans out loud, but opts instead to crack open one eye and resume his perusal of Jade Harley.

She's reading silently again and she's mouthing the words this time. He kind of wants her to keep doing it and stop it simultaneously because it's distracting as hell. Whatever story she's reading right now is apparently happy judging by the wide smile playing on her face and she's still mouthing the words holy bulge juggling fleshbag could she just _stop that_?

"Stop what, Karkat?"

…What.

Suddenly the room feels much warmer than it has any right to be and Karkat wishes he could just crawl under the cushions and die. His brain exits the cabin (more like it throws itself off that ride without a damn parachute) and his mouth goes on auto-pilot.

"You move your mouth while you're reading, are you aware of that? You're making gross and totally unattractive fleshy human noises and it's disrupting the natural flow of silence. Excuse me if I don't like seeing such a half-assed attempt at reading."

"How can someone half-ass reading? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she chuckles, giving him a pointed look. Green eyes peer over the top of her glasses and flash in an unspoken challenge. A familiar feeling prickles at the back of Karkat's mind as he shifts onto his elbows; oh, he is all over this face off.

"My apologies your Royal Woofbeastliness," he attempts a bow except it's rather difficult when he's lying on his stomach and propped on his elbows, "but I seemed to have forgotten that your human think pan is so utterly inferior to mine. What I was trying to say, and I'll put it in terms that maybe you can grasp, is that you either whole-ass it and read out loud, or whole-ass it and stay silent. Don't half-ass anything and definitely _don't_ mouth your words."  
The words all come out in a rush and Karkat realizes just what he's said when he sees the sly smile blooming on Jade's face.

"Oh geez, sorry Karkat," she says with faux concern, "I didn't realize you found my mouth so distracting." She smirks at him when his pointy ears, sticking out from his unruly hair, flush bright red.

Jerking back in embarrassment, Karkat nearly propels himself off the cushion pile, his face hot, and Jade barks out a laugh.

"If you wanted me to read out loud you could have just asked," she grins knowingly.

He doesn't respond, just shoots her a glare and readjusts himself on the cushions. Quietly and quickly, her voice is filling the room as she reads one of the stories and Karkat swears that he could fall asleep to her voice alone and have no worries about horrorterrors. His fingers keep kneading the cushions and slowly his eyelids start to droop. Just barely does he register Jade's voice dipping and nearly stuttering out. One eyelid opens up to sneak a glance at her.

The expression on her face makes something catch in his throat and he's sure it's not about pity. The one staring this time is her, with soft eyes and a gentle smile, and she makes no move to hide it like he had done. After a moment, she ducks her head down and resumes reading. There is something different in the air, in the room, and Karkat realizes there was never any bite in their words and the feeling isn't anything inherently terrible. He thinks he could get used to her bright voice, bright eyes, and the warmth that hangs around when she is with him.

Slowly, Karkat drags his languid limbs over to Jade, who is sitting cross-legged, and ducks under the book, flips over, and settles himself into her lap so that her chin rests on the top of his head. Fingers knead at the cushions again and he doesn't comment on how perfectly he fits there because that would be stupid.

 

Jade doesn't think it's stupid.  
(And really, in truth, neither does he.)

**Author's Note:**

> (casually dumps this here and scuttles off)
> 
> UM let it be known that I have a fairly limited grasp on all things Homestuck.  
> Karkat's everything is beyond my capabilities to write (but that doesn't meant I won't try!) and I'm more of a fanartist anyway :(
> 
> The half-ass/whole-ass thing was inspired from a Ron Swanson post I saw on Tumblr.  
> I apologize if the "insults"/general Karkat and Jade seem out of character. Like I said, I'm not really a writer but I like to dabble about with words sometimes.  
> asdklfj


End file.
